Practical Food Applications of Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a thermal analysis technique to measure the temperature and heat flows associated with phase transitions in materials, as a function of time and temperature. DSC is particularly suitable for analysis of food systems because they are often subject to heating or cooling during processing. The calorimetric information from DSC can be directly used to understand the thermal transitions that the food system may undergo during processing or storage. DSC is easy to operate and in most cases no special sample preparation is required. This application note describes a number of important food applications utilizing PerkinElmer DSC and demonstrates the versatility of the technique as a tool in the food industry.